In this post I will be reviewing Volume 54 of Hi-Fructose Magazine. Now this is the first time I have ever owned Hi-Fructose so I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I liked the look of their website which is what lead me to purchasing it. The front cover also drew me to this particular issue a bit when I was browsing around in WH-Smith, it seemed to be rather nature focused, with an image of a young girl having a relaxing cup of tea in the middle of a forest/jungle. Gibbons surround the girl in the trees while they tuck into some oranges and stare curiously at the girl who appears to be drawing a picture of a dragon. There is just so much going on in this front cover, the more I stare at it, the more of a story I see and the more questions I have about what is going on. I was definitely drawn to the nature aspect of the cover, it seemed really interesting and I hoped that the nature theme would continue throughout the magazine, and I some ways it did.

Now I cannot say that I like all of the art that is presented in this magazine, but even the artists that I do not likely still teach me something because the articles in Hi-Fructose are so well written and the interviews go so in depth to each illustrators and artists process to find out why they do what they do. This can be said about the first artist that is featured in this volume of Hi-Fructose, Eunjeon Choi, who creates unbelievably vibrant and psychedelic pieces that are inspired by bonsai trees and the way that they are structured and forced to grow a certain way against their will. To me, Choi’s work is too much to look at, their work feels crowded and overtly colourful and chaotic. This is kind of the point as Choi also takes inspiration from our fascination with artificiality and they chaotic world we have created online and while I do like the idea behind Choi’s work and their motivations, the art itself is just too much for me.

There are artists in this issue of Hi Fructose that really inspire me, artists such as Rikka Sormunnen and Bisa Butler who use their respective mediums to try and fight for change in the world and raise awareness to current issues that unfortunately are on the rise in 2020. Riikka Sormunen subverts the impossible beauty standards placed on women by men by using traditional poses that are often associated with beauty and turns them into something uncanny, something slightly disturbing. She has plans to start drawing women with stretch marks and cellulite in the future. Bisa Butler uses fabrics to create stunning, actual size portraits of unnamed African Americans in an attempt to give them the respect they never received in life. Her portraits are also made to confront people who do not believe that African Americans are equal, to challenge their misled preconceptions and force them to look them in the eye and question why their negative views.

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There are a lot more artists featured in this issue of Hi-Fructose, there is even a small book contained within which is a nice extra bonus. Each page is beautifully laid out and has opened my eyes to a whole host of illustrators and artists that I didn’t know about before. I am definitely going to be buying more issues Hi-Fructose in the future. The magazine seems to be catered to young adult/adult audience, since quite a few of the artists draw mature things and the topics that are presented within the magazine are quite complex, as is the way the interviews and articles are written. I just don’t think a child would be able to understand much of what is going on within Hi-Fructose.

This magazine is going to help me a lot in my college work, it will provide me with a wider range of artists to research and explore which id dint have before. I also intend to use it as a part of my research for the essay which we have been asked to write before the 19^th of March.